Photo Albums

Thanks for all the prayers, emails, calls, and texts. Jackson is back to normal. He should be back to playing basketball this weekend even!

This week's theme, "Beginnings" or "New", had me stumped at first. Everything is still grey, and nothing is growing in the fields yet. Planting has started in earnest this week however. Spring never takes long to arrive in South Texas. So I wandered around my yard, full of dead things that couldn't take the freezes we had this winter. It was hard to find any signs of life. My Bradford Pear, the bent-in-the-wind tree, the one that never blooms, the one I insisted on planting despite its chances in the heat and humidity, is budding out. The promise of a new beginning.

But I couldn't help think of Jack, and his new beginning of sorts. For 11 years, his life has depended on the shunt in his brain. Yet due to last week's surgery, he is now shunt-free. And although it is really not that different than before on the outside to an observer, it is a new way of living for him and his brain. So I have to include a picture of him in the hospital, dozing in a nest of Legos and Dr. Buster Posey in his arms, head wrapped and arm full of IV paraphernalia.

Jack's shunt failed after flawlessly working for almost 10 years. Saturday, we went to the Driscoll emergency room b/c the doctor we saw Friday about his debilitating and excruciating headache (not his pediatrician, but another in his practice) wasn't concerned and prescribed Phenegren (sp?) so he could (and I quote!) "sleep it off." Dr. Burke was called to return from San Antonio, his mother in-tow, and did the surgery to fix it. (Having his mother observe would surely ensure that our favorite neurosurgeon did his absolute best, right?)

Dr. Burke did a third ventriculostomy. If it works, Jackson will leave the hospital without his shunt. It will be several more days before we know for sure that the procedure worked. He had a tough morning today, but the rest of the day went much better.

Thanks for all the prayers, texts, visits, calls, emails, and FB messages.

*Jackson has hydrocephalus. He has had shunt since January, 2000. To learn more about it, click my previous post, Hydrocephalus.

Another Friday is here, and a fresh assignment. This week's theme is "motions." I knew exactly what shot I wanted to use. It is an old one, straight from my archives. Not sure there is one thing technically correct in this shot, yet it is as precise as my memory of that day. And I think it demonstrates motion. It remains one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken.

My boys had some friends over on a wet day during Spring Break. We live in the middle of a cotton field, which quickly turns to, in the eyes of boys, a gigantic mud wrestling pit. The boys rolled around and wallered just like pigs. My little one, Jack, had gotten mud in his eyes, and couldn't see a thing. His friend James grabbed his hand and ran him over to the water hose to wash off his face. It's great to have a life-long friend to help you through things and keep you headed in the right direction when you can't see straight.

Before you even peek at this week's assignment*, you must realize I live on the South Texas coast. We can wear shorts and flip-flops most days of the year. We get down to freezing maybe once a year, and rarely a hard freeze.

This year, however, we are experiencing a bit of a proper winter. Freezing temperatures! In the daytime! Chance of freezing precipitation! These things are just unheard of down here.

For this week's theme, "signs," I decided to document a sign of the winter weather we are in the midst of at the moment. This was taken close to noon. And if you are in the frozen north, please don't make fun of me and how my thin blood marvels at our little cold snap. :)

*In case you have missed it, I am part of a group of photographers doing a year-long project. Each week, there is an assigned theme. On Fridays, we post our interpretation of the theme, then link to another photographer in the group. You can take a little journey from blog to blog, see some inspiring and creative work, and get to know new people.